In the 5th or 6th grade (circa 1995/1996), I wrote a sci-fi novel(la) entitled Renegades. It is more or less a blatant rip-off of any sci-fi or action movie or book I had consumed up until that point in my life. It definitely reads like the work of a 5th-grader, and I’m fairly certain I introduce a new character with a semi-unpronounceable name every few paragraphs, only to kill them off shortly afterward. Having recently recovered this work of art from floppy disk (!), I plan to serialize it here over the coming days. Enjoy (?).

RENEGADES

… Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Part 4

EXOTIA

Claire Yulin also had some good friends on Exotia, they were pilots of cargo ships but also some good smugglers. Maria Woods and Raechal Canon were quick to know of Claire’s problem as they sat at a bar table in the bazaar. Since she knew Jonathan was supposed to meet her their and since he was always on time, he must have already been here, maybe he was dead, maybe he was hiding, captured, or was this all a trick Jonathan was playing on her? With their heads together they eliminated possibilities.

“Well you would of known if he was dead, and since you know this guy pretty well, my guess is that he is captured.” The ebony-haired Woods suggested. Canon quickly nodded in agreement.

“We probably know who did it… the Comachens, but there is plenty of places they could have taken him…” Claire sighed hopelessly.

“They would have taken him to one of their mega-prisons, which there is only two of, Mantaglia, which is on the other side of this galactic arm, and their is Sortak which just happens to be in the system next door..”

Claire still disagreed. “Now how could we get into a Comachen super-prison without having clearance?”

Raechal smiled. “Not to worry my friend, we’ve delivered supplies there before and could easily do it again.”

“I knew you guys could help me, then it’s off to Sortak prison we go!” said Claire as they rose from their table.

* * *

IVATIA

An FA-313 fast strike assault ship was like a shadow over the west wing of the hanger. It was an immense hulk of metal, it was large enough to carry cargo and three passengers and a pilot.  Roman Denthra had his mission file up on the small monitor from Alderian Admiral Raegus Heft, the chief commander of the Black Rangers: Operation Firestrike VI. He read it closely, there was a lot about some guy who he had to rescue and send aid to at a lot of junk on the Black Ranger’s failure at Exotia space resort. He never really paid enough attention to anything, Daniel Preian was signaling from below the cockpit trying to meet with Denthra. Finally, Denthra lowered the cockpit about a meter from the ship and a ladder was released that led to the open cargo hold.

“Nice Lug a’ bolts you got here Denthra.” Announced Preian as he reached the top of the rope ladder and climbed into the hold. Denthra was sitting by a group of levers near a passenger seat. Preian took up the ladder as Denthra pulled a lever and the cockpit moved back into place.

“Hey, Preian.” Denthra shouted getting his attention. “When you lied about you’re age to that Comachen, I thought that was a little too risky, you should have been like me.”

“Yeah, you statue.” Preian said back. “You were standing like you were stuck to the ground like a tree and the expression on you’re face when you replied so simply. Whoa.” Denthra changed the subject and opened a floorboard. “Operation Firestrike six,” he said pointing to the various sorts of missiles. “We’ve got to save some guy who has the key to the Comachen’s downfall.” He sighed, “but the only problem is, no one knows where he is, either that or we’re getting set up.”

“I hope not.” Preian said gazing at the warheads.

“You get half of them.” Denthra replied. “We gotta take out Broman and his crew, then we carry out our mission.”

“Sabotage.”

“Exactly…”

* * *

SORTAK PRISON

Who was this Black Ranger who was supposed to rescue them? How do the Alderians know where I am if they sent one. Where was the disk and how would he get it back? “Forget that”. He suddenly told himself in a low whisper. What the Alderians needed to know was where the Comachen’s capital world. And that was the only thing he did know that was on the second disk! Ivatia in the constellation Leo, star four. Were some thoughts that raced through Jonathan’s head as he sat in the cell corner. But he knew he would probably rot before he got that information back to Alderia. Suddenly he heard something, and some hard rock food fell to the floor from a shaft in the wall.

“What the heck is this supposed to be?” stammered Minstrel as he picked up a fist-sized loaf of bread and a plastic packet of water.

Paul Wallin ate ferociously in his corner as Jonathan and Timothy still examined the food.

“I thought this place was where they dumped you in here and forgot about you?” He asked himself.

“Don’t you worry Johnny, I have a feeling we won’ be in here for long…” Isaac said with enthusiasm which did not even make Jonathan or anyone smirk.

* * *

ALDERIA

Harri Elton had just returned from the mass funeral. He was being interviewed and people were gathering around him like bees and honey. He wore a brown trench coat and a tuxedo beneath, the cold Alderian air chilled his ears and head. The mob slowly died away and the press started leaving. He neared his private spaceport. He entered the room very quietly and circled the room removing his coat. His spacecraft was in the center launchpad, a pale green and gray carrier. He walked up to the elevator door and opened it, he walked in and punched the button sub-level fourteen and it dropped immediately. It took about thirty seconds until the door opened again, then he was in a water reservoir, waterfalls were at either side and a bridge between them, at the far end was his secret meeting building. He walked across the bridge and at the same time he noticed a light was on in the room. He entered the meeting hall, there was a long table and at his end was a glass of water and a file. At the other end was a black-haired moustached Soviet-looking man. He recognized him immediately.

“Oh, hello Mr. Berzerac.”

* * *

SORTAK PRISON

“Do you see that gray moon up ahead Claire?” Asked Maria from the co-pilot’s seat to Claire who sat behind the pilot’s chairs in the large cockpit.

“Sure do.” Replied Claire.

“Sortak planetary Comachen Prison.” Admitted Raechal as they were just about to enter radar range.

The transmitter buzzed. “This is Sortak Comachen Control. State your business..”

Maria leaned forward.” Cargo delivery.”

“Clearance code please.”

She quickly entered 9 numbers and letters into the keyboard.

After 10 seconds the operator of Sortak Control replied:” Code accepted, dock at bay 109-C.”

They soon found themselves entering a dim-lighted tunnel that opened into the main room which everything was in, the mines at the far bottom, the docking bays and the prisoner bridges over top, the cell veins hallowed into the moon at the far side and several  buildings beside the docking bays. The whole prison was about as big and as tall as a fair sized 23rd century city. Magnetic landing skids sprung themselves from their ship and onto a landing pad, their exterior door opened and a ramp was supplied to their ship soon after landing. One by one they exited the ship and was greeted by a security guard.

“Hi gals, what do you got for us today?” He said smiling at Claire.

“Oh just some equipment.” Replied Raechal.” Now where do we sign in?”

“Sign in?… Oh yeah, just down their in the building nearest to the landing pads is the office, Major Will can ‘elp ya’ there.” The man said confusingly.

They quickly followed another guard up a ramp to a building on 100 meter stilts. When they arrived the guard knocked and opened the door, greeted a man in uniform and explained the womens’ purpose.

“Hello.” The man in uniform stood from his desk. “I’m Major Will Kianne, in charge of the Sortak operation. “Hi.” They all took their turn in saying while they were obliged to write the facts of their mission, shipment, crew, point of departure etc. into a computer.

Suddenly a mining overseer came hustling into the room. “Sir, there’s been an accident with equipment and explosions, it’s chaos down there, sir!” Then the major left the room in a great hurry leaving the three alone to do whatever they want.

“They’ll probably have most personnel working on that for a while, that would give us time to figure out where Jonathan is and how to escape”. Claire, being the most computer wise, accessed the prisoner records of Sortak, and tried to access the last ten prisoner convoys that had entered Sortak. Only one ship had entered from a departure point of Exotia and only 1 prisoner. She then read the screen:” Jonathan A. DeCartier, arrested on Exotia 10 hours ago, no reason for arrest and was sent to cell # B-22.” She sighed in relief that he was not among the slaves down below, who are not even logged into the computer. They then printed a blueprint of the Sortak prison and they were about to leave when Raechal searched the desk drawers and pulled out a handgun.

“I think we’ll need this…”

They ran down the bridge with ultimate speed while occasionally looking at the mines below, lit by vast fires. Sirens shouted as Comachen personnel ran down the ramps trying to extinguish the flames. Parts of the mine had caved in avalanches. “Gee, I didn’t know it was that bad.” Admitted Maria. Then, without noticing, before entering the B cell vein, a guard popped out in font of them.

“Where do you think you’re goin?” He asked with an assault rifle in his hand.

Without reply, Raechal shot the man just above the knee and when he fell down on his knees she kicked him in the lower jaw and breaking it. The man slumped down unconscious, Claire grabbed his gun and then continued the trek into the dark. She then turned on the light of the assault rifle as they neared the end of the tunnel. Checking the cell codes, they finally came upon B-22…

* * *

Timothy Cassen was the first to hear the banging on the door. “D’you hear that?” He asked.

“What?” Jonathan listened. He heard a pounding of fists on the door. He pounded back, something replied. Then he got out of the way to tell the others someone was there. Suddenly, a bullet fired right through the door and hit the other side of the cell, a small hole was now in between the two groups. “Who’s there?” Yelled Jonathan.

“It’s me Jonathan!” Replied a familiar voice.

“Claire?” He echoed. “How did you-”

“I’ll explain later, now get of the way so I can blast through with a laser.” Jonathan stepped back as Claire converted her rifle from bullets to laser. A red beam started to cut through the door and in several minutes, while the others waited, the door caved in and one by one they climbed out of the shaft and back into the cell vein.

“Let’s go, Quick!” Maria yelled. The eight men and women ran down the cell vein until they reached the body of the unconscious guard at the mouth of the cell vein.

Claire peered into the open area, explosions still echoed in the background, but more guards had returned to the bridges. “There is too many guards now, you five will have to take the ventilation shaft to the docking bays, it might take a while, but we have to unload our ship anyway, but you’ll have to be careful, okay.”

Jonathan looked at the others, which mostly Claire’s idea was in favor.

“We’ll be in docking bay 109-C.” Said Raechal as Minstrel kicked open a vent and one by one they crawled in and disappeared.

Then they hurried down the bridge when they were confronted by yet another guard.

“May I help you, this is a restricted zone.” He said.

“Uhhh… We got lost after we signed up for our ship, were is docking bay 109-C?” Maria asked innocently.

The Guard shrugged and pointed.” Just down there.” Without any gratitude they ran to their ship where cargo personnel was waiting to unload their cargo…

* * *

Fairthorn was surrounded by complete darkness, somehow, he had took a wrong turn in a vent and slipped into a dark corridor. Paul Wallin was also gone. He looked around as his eyes came into focus, he must of hit his head, too, for blood was dripping down his forehead. He had entered another shaft, below their’s. It was much darker but the walls were still visible, no alarms had went off or lights put on. This shaft was not a prisoner tunnel, it was some-sort of maintenance or storage tunnel instead. Suddenly, he heard something.

* * *

They were now directly above the entrance to their cell. Jonathan was leading and Timothy in behind.There was a fork in the ventilation shaft, one to the left, which was lighter and seemed less dangerous. The right was bone-chillingly midnight darkness, forward was a cooling fan. Jonathan didn’t asked, he just turned right and headed down the shaft, Gregorr followed and Cassen almost thought twice, but chose to follow. The came to a larger shaft and they could not sit up but could not stand. It was lighter, and this was where the ventilation stopped and the rocky mining tunnels took shape, grating below them revealed compete darkness, it was a dead-end. They decided they would not take their chances in the tunnels and knew nothing about what was below them.

Minstrel sat back against the vent and made a large echoing noise. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a mining prisoner spotted them and started yelling at them. “Help! Help! Escapers! Escapers, Rescue!” The bony- bearded man yelled and caught the attention of seven mine guards who were taking a break somewhere down in the tunnels.

“Get out!” Cassen screamed at them. “Out through the vent!”

Frenzy overtook them as they guards scurried down the tunnel arming their rifles.

“Three of them – fire on my mark.” The lead yelled as they approached the edge of the vent shaft.

Minstrel popped open the grating and slipped in. Jonathan was going to follow but Cassen held him back and shielded him. Cassen started to back off when they started opening fire that buzzed around them and missed by inches.

“Now!” Cassen yelled and pushed Jonathan into the hole, he followed and forgot about the guards. It felt like dropping along time when abruptly-

Splash! Jonathan landed into a murky-slimy liquid, almost like mud. Splash! Timothy Cassen landed a few meters to his left with a cannonball-jump.

“Johnny!” Cassen yelled.

“I’m here!”

“The water is moving!” Cassen warned. “We’re in the garbage discard tunnel. We’re heading deeper into the moon!”

“Where’s Gregorr?” Jonathan yelled.

“I can’t see him.” He looked around. “As a matter of fact I can’t see you either.”

Splash! Splash! Splash!

“The guards!” Cassen added. Flashlights from the guns loomed around the river-way.

The Lieutenant spotted a body in the darkness and fired two shots.

“Aaaaah! You shot my leg!” He recognized the voice, it was one of his own.

“Dang!” He looked around and spotted his other guard as he waded through the sludge. His guard suddenly shot a rifle shell and there was a shriek.

Jonathan remained low and silent, Cassen he could not see and Minstrel, who he had just found, was shot between the collar bone. He tried to find the sides of the tunnel through the strong current and grasped hold of a metal horizontal pipe about a foot above the water line. The wounded guard suddenly floated past him and saw Jonathan. He was too late to get his gun, Jonathan leaped from the wall and pounced on him and held his head under the sludge, they both floated down the tunnel until the guard’s body became lifeless from drowning and then Jonathan tore the rifle from his belt and waded again to the side.

The water was moving more swiftly now and he found it harder to reach the side and finally, he did. The guard lieutenant escaped and back up to the surface. Suddenly Cassen emerged from the sludge, gasping for air, but, as suddenly as he came up, he went down again. He was under attack! Jonathan aimed the rifle at the water and waited until Cassen and the guard emerged again. Then, They both emerged, he fired but he missed by almost more that a meter. Cassen came up and started swimming towards Jonathan. The guard came up too, and went after him but boom! He was dead.

Cassen was still getting his breath when he came to the side. “I think we should have took the tunnel…”

The ongoing serialization of “Renegades” will continue in the coming days. Please stay tuned.

Read Part 5.